The basketball player, double Olympic champion, has been incarcerated since February when airport authorities found cannabis oil in his belongings when he entered Russia.
American basketball player Brittney Griner, in preventive detention since February in Russia for drug smuggling, will be tried from July 1, as reported today by the courts. Griner remains incarcerated after trying to enter the country with a bottle of cannabis oil.
The family made desperate attempts trying to recover Joe Biden, President of the United States, ask for his immediate release. All campaigns to bring Griner back to the country were led by his wife Cherelle Griner and encountered worldwide impact through WNBA and the NBA. But nothing came of it.
The Russian court has extended for six months, until December 20, the custody against the double Olympic champion. Recently, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskovdenied that the imprisoned basketball player was a hostage of the Russian judicial system. “We can’t call him a hostage. He violated Russian law. Now they are criminally prosecuting him.”Peskov said in an interview on an American channel. “She is being prosecuted under Russian law. It is not only in Russia that there are such onerous laws in this field. There are many countries where drugs cannot be taken. That is prosecuted by law. And we can do nothing”He added.
Griner, player of Yekaterinburg UGMKwas arrested on Feb. 17 at the airport Sheremetvo sa Moscowwhile customs officers found cannabis oil in their bags.
Like other American players, Griner took advantage of months when there was no WNBA competition to play in Europe, where he had a salary of more than a million dollars, four times the highest in the United States.
At that time, Russian media reported that Russia and the United States were in talks to replace Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor But, known as a “merchant of death” and serving a sentence in a U.S. prison.
Source: EFE
Source: Tycsports
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